Archive for the ‘Internet’ Category
Filed under: General, Internet
I complained a bit about having an antenna and how frustrating it can be sometimes to try and watch TV with it. But, I didn’t really talk much about IPTV, and I am sure many of you were thinking about that while reading my complaint post on antenna TV. Just getting TV over the internet would actually meet both of my requests, having more stability and being able to pretty much watch when I want to watch instead of being restricted to a schedule around TV. I like the idea but you have to have your computer connected to the TV or a big enough screen that you can use it as both a monitor and a TV. I bet, though, that they have other things out that are all in one items, where you can surf through your TV. The only ones I can think of in that regard, though, require you to have cable television as well as the internet. I will take a quick look. I am sure there are other options besides having to have cable and SDSL.
I just did a real quick search and in the UK and in the states you can find several places online that will let you watch TV. That’s pretty neat! Might save me some money. I also know that the local stations tend to offer many of their shows online for watching as well. Actually, one of the things I like about the local stations online is the way they handle their advertising there. The advertising online for the local channels is much more focused. Each show normally has only one or two sponsors so that is all you get as far as commercials, plus the amount of commercials you get is cut down a lot. It makes for a much more pleasant viewing experience to be honest, don’t forget, you can pause online as well.
Tags: air broadcast, nice online tv, Television, tv
Filed under: Internet
I really hope that broadband providers do not completely embrace the pay as you go idea for internet bandwidth usage. In the states it seems to be gaining traction, and in Europe I am not entirely sure what the current status is, they may already be on that sort of sliding usage rate scale. The basic idea behind it is that for those who play online games or those who download a lot of things, they would be charged at a higher rate do to their usage of the bandwidth. It really doesn’t make much sense to me, the only thing it really has going for it is the greed factor, and that only works if you are one of those who would benefit financially by that type of rate change. In other words, those who work for a broadband company could see benefit, of course it probably would only be the ones who ran things, not those who actually did things. If they did that would it be the same for the home user and their ISP? What about business broadband providers, how would businesses deal with that kind of bill increase, especially in these times? One would hope, that just like the current credit card issues, that people would have an alternate choice for their service.
If one company decides to run with this type of rate structure then the company that didn’t would have many converts. I know that if I had the choice of a company who charges on usage and one who charges the regular way, I would boycott, spit at and campaign against the company that tried to charge by usage. A 2mb leased line provider would be nice for some, but not if their where other charges involved depending upon usage. I wonder how that would affect those who provided hosting service.
Tags: charges, rates, stupid charges, usage charge
Filed under: Internet
Finally, my business is up and running, in the starting stages. I’ve still got a few things to iron out but most of it is ready to go. I need a very good internet connection for business so that is one of the things I am still thinking about. I may have mentioned it before, who knows. Things kind of all get jumbled together after a certain age or certain number of long nights. Depending where you are there are more than a couple of broadband companies to choose from. It seems to be more of a pain than I thought it would be. Trying to figure out what means what and whether I need leased line providers or some other thing I have yet to hear of. There seems to be a lot of stuff to learn, if you want to make and educated decision and not just go off of what the salesperson is telling you. My first thought there, is that it could be a big mistake to trust a salesperson. I am sure most are perfectly honest, but their job is to sell you something. If they need repeat customers you are probably good.
It can be difficult to choose amongst the available companies, of course, depending on the business SDSL availability you might find your choice to be an easy one. Otherwise I am trying to just find out as much information about each company as I can. Basically, just Googling. Checking for reviews of each company and of course the all important price factor. Although, to be honest, I find that while price is certainly a factor, quality comes first. Quality of service, which includes stability of the line is truly essential for a business. I think many regular users probably figure it is really important for home use too.
Tags: broadband, business, leased lines, rates
Filed under: Internet
Here’s a disturbing report from ZNET, claiming that routers are now available to hack via the psyb0t virus.
The big problem being that routers are not directly coverage by any anti-virus software or other protections outside of their own firmware, so if anyone’s router is compromised, the user is unlikely to know.
This could be an extremely powerful way to build up a botnet, not least because routers are always on, which means the botnet would have guaranteed availability.
What’s more, with the increase in broadband capacity being built into upgraded super-fast broadband networks, on top of the already high bandwidth capacity of ADSL and SDSL, this can only give hackers and those who control botnets much more powerful tools to work with.
If you’re not worried already, you should be, as cybercrime is increasingly becoming a major organised criminal activity.
